UNC Project - Uganda
History
The history of UNC Project-Uganda begins with Dr. Amal Murarka (1969-2003), a faculty physician at UNC-Chapel Hill who was killed in an automobile accident while driving home from the beach. Before joining the faculty at UNC, Dr. Murarka spent a year at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he conducted HIV research which ultimately led to the discovery of the first drug to successfully prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Shortly after his death, several of Dr. Murarka’s UNC colleagues established the Amal Murarka International Pediatric Health Foundation. In 2004, the foundation sent a team to Kampala to establish the first pediatric intensive care unit in the country at Mulago Hospital at Makerere University.
Two subsequent trips in 2007 and 2008 focused on pediatric cardiac surgery. Teaming up with colleagues from Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C., the foundation not only built a cardiac ICU at Mulago, but completed a total of 21 life-saving pediatric cardiac surgeries.
At the end of 2008, the Uganda team formed a partnership with the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases to formally recognize these efforts and establish the UNC Project-Uganda. With support from IGHID, UNC Project-Uganda aims to build on its current programs in order to offer service and research opportunities for UNC faculty and students in service of the children of Uganda.
Mission
The UNC Project-Uganda was established to support sustainable delivery of compassionate and competent health care to infants, children, and adolescents in Uganda; to improve the medical knowledge of the Ugandan health care workforce through in-country training and a physician exchange program; and to provide advanced medical equipment, medications, and services necessary for the delivery of compassionate and competent pediatric care in Uganda.
People
Keith Kocis, MD
Director
kkocis@unch.unc.edu
Karla Brown, RN, PNP
Surgical Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
kjbrown@med.unc.edu
Katherine Desrochers, RN
Pediatric Intensive Care Nurse
kdesroch@unch.unc.edu
Tiffany Mabe, RRT-NPS, RCP, CICP
Pediatric Manager
Respiratory Care Department
TMabe@unch.unc.edu
Michael Mill, MD
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
michael_mill@med.unc.edu
Bill Nicotra, CCP,LP
Chief of Perfusion
bnicotra@unch.unc.edu
Helen Snow, MBA
Patient and Donor Relations
helen_snow@unc.edu
Diane Yorke, MBA, PhD, RN, CPNP
Clinical Education Leader
dyorke@email.unc.edu
